Vigil held for double murder victims in Madison County

RICHMOND, Ky. (WKYT) - Their friends and family want to make sure they're never forgotten. Friday night, a vigil was held for two women murdered two years ago.

Police say John Payne killed his mother, Cornelia "Gayle" Mullins, and his fiancee, Meredith King, in a home in Richmond. Payne is still waiting to stand trial.

"You don't know one day from the next what's fixing to happen," explains King's mother Sharlene Evans. Evans has sat in the Madison County Courthouse at least a dozen times. She's at every hearing and pre-trial meeting she can attend, watching and waiting for justice for her daughter.

"You're gonna suffer the rest of your life, but you can't get no ending, of course it'll never end, but at least you would have this horrible part behind you, to know what is gonna happen."

Evans is waiting to see what happens to John Payne, the man Richmond police say shot her daughter and Payne's own mother, Gayle Mullins.

"She was my friend. She had a heart of gold," Michele McCarthy says of her friend Mullins.

King's mother is hoping this will be the last vigil they'll have to have at the courthouse. By this time next year, John Payne's trial should be over, and she hopes justice will be served.

"We'll never put it behind us, but we'll be able to have a private thing at the cemetery," says Evans.

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